The invention relates to the field of liquid crystal display (LCD) design and, more particularly, with techniques for implementing thin-film pixelated compensator elements within a conventional liquid crystal cell.
Contrast and stability of relative gray scale intensities are important attributes in determining the quality of a liquid crystal display. The primary factor limiting the contrast achievable in a liquid crystal display is the amount of light which leaks through the display in the dark state.
In addition, the contrast ratio of a liquid crystal device also depends on the viewing angle. The contrast ratio in a typical liquid crystal display is a maximum only within a narrow viewing angle centered about normal incidence and drops off as the angle of view is increased. This loss of contrast ratio is caused by light leaking through the black state pixel elements at large viewing angles. In color liquid crystal displays, such leakage is also known to cause severe color shifts for both saturated and gray scale colors.